ProcessWire 3 master and changelog 30 September 2016

What’s new in ProcessWire 3?

Last week we called it a soft launch, but this week we'll say ProcessWire 3 is now released and considered our new master, version 3.0.35. This post is a changelog of sorts, where we will cover all that's new in ProcessWire 3!

System upgrades

NamespacesTechnically, one of the biggest difference between 2.x and 3.x is that 3.x uses PHP namespaces. More

Support for compiled modules and template filesIn order to ease the transition to namespaces for modules and template files, ProcessWire is able to automatically compile non-namespaces modules or template files into a format that makes them recognize namespaces. More

Field rendering template filesProcessWire 3.x also adds support for a new kind of template file. You can now have template files for any field in ProcessWire, and those template files can be used to render output for any given field. Read more here and here.

Multi-instance supportProcessWire 3.x lets you boot multiple copies of ProcessWire at the same time, which opens new possibilities for sharing data among multiple installations. How to use multi-instance

New API variables

$filesProvides several great new API methods for files and directories, including rendering, manipulation, zipping/unzipping, and compilation.

$datetimeProvides several useful API methods for working with dates and times.

$classLoaderEnables you to connect PHP namespaces with file system paths for autoloading purposes.

New $page and $pages API methods

New $pages->findOne() methodProcessWire 3.x adds a new findOne() method that behaves as kind of a hybrid between the $pages->find() and $pages->get() methods. More

New $pages->getPath() and $pages->getByPath() methodsThe getPath() method enables you to get the path to a page without actually loading it, making it a nice optimization for several instances. And the getByPath() method enables you to retrieve a Page object when you only know the path. Of course you can already do that with any page finding method that accepts a selector, but the difference is that getByPath() is very task focused and can do it a lot more quickly, and with a few extras as well. More

New $pages->touch() methodThe touch() method works very much like the unix "touch" command. Given a $page, it quickly updates that page's modification time (in the database) to now. More

New $pages->findMany() methodThe findMany() method enables you to find thousands upon thousands of pages at once, and even iterate them without running out of memory! More

New $page->index() API methodThis new index() method (also accessible as a property) tells you the position of any page relative to its siblings. More

API-side loading, sorting and filtering via $page methodsMulti-value fields (where supported) can now be filtered or sorted before they are loaded simply by calling them as a method on $page rather than as a property. More

Field upgrades

Major image field upgradesImage fields got a major upgrade in 3.x thanks to a redesign by Renobird and development help from LostKobrakai. The design was originally introduced in this post by Renobird, and the results now appear in the current 3.x version with more info and screencasts here and here.

New link abstraction featuresFull page link abstraction is now built into the core Textarea field, making it possible to move or rename linked pages and have any internal links to them get updated automatically. More

Repeater upgradesRepeaters have a ton of upgrades in 3.x, making them far more useful and efficient than before. Read more here and here and here.

Repeater Matrix supportIn combination with some of the Repeater upgrades mentioned above, 3.x also supports the ProFields Repeater Matrix Fieldtype, which is opens up a whole new landscape of editing possibilities. More

Enhanced password fieldsPasswords fields received major upgrades in UI and configurable security options. More

Paginated FieldtypesNew support for paginated fieldtypes is a massive upgrade for scalability of multi-value fields. The ProFields Table Fieldtype is the first example to support this. More

Text lengths and runtime character/word countersSupport for minimum length requirements was added to text-based types. Support for maximum length was also added on Textarea types. In addition, you now have the option of showing a runtime character (or word) counter with text types. More

Page tree and editor upgrades

Smarter and faster page treeThe page tree now remembers where you left it. This also enables it to load the page list much faster than before. More

New page view optionsYou now have a lot more options when it comes to viewing a page on the front-end. Our "view" link is now a drop-down letting you choose to view it in the same window, in a modal, in a panel or in a new window. More

Image resizing upgradesThanks to the work of Horst, we added support for new ImageSizerEngine modules and bundled the new ImageMagick resizing engine as a faster alternative to the built in GD resizing engine. More

Dropdown button actionsNow our submit buttons come with dropdown actions, which add convenience and save time. More here and here, as well as a new "Save and edit next" action here.

Performance and optimization

Improvements to sub-selectorsThe speed at which sub-selectors operate has now been greatly improved. Basically, they are now hundreds of times faster than before. 3.x also now supports nested sub-selectors.

Exponentially faster formsWith a few bottlenecks removed, our editor forms (InputfieldForm) are now exponentially faster! More

Major performance upgrades to Page traversal methodsThe Page traversal methods like $page->next(), $page->nextAll(), $page->nextUntil(), and all the equivalent prev() versions, received major upgrades making them not only simpler to use but a whole lot faster! More

Enhanced page finding selectorsPage finding selectors got a whole lot more powerful with support for a.b.c and a.b.c.d (and so on) type selectors! More

Control over when to use sessionsNow you have the ability to implement a function that controls when sessions are allowed using your own provided logic. More

Multi-language upgrades

Language pack CSV import/export You can now export an entire language pack (group of translation files) to a single CSV file. You can also import translations from the CSV file. More

Extended page namesWe added support for extended page names enable you to have URLs containing almost any UTF-8 characters. This is great for multi-language sites too. More

Improved issue and request managementWe now have an issue and request management team, lead by Francesco Schwarz (@isellsoap), new repositories for managing issues and requests, new issue templates, and more. More

What about ProcessWire 2.8?

ProcessWire version 2.8, hosted in our new processwire-legacy repository, is by-and-large exactly the same as ProcessWire 3 except for the following exclusions:

namespaces

multi-instance*

Composer support*

Packagist

*May still work but we aren't officially supporting it in 2.8. If you need any of the above items we recommend sticking with ProcessWire 3.

ProcessWire Upgrade module updated for PW3

With ProcessWire 3 now out, the ProcessWire Upgrade module has also received a version upgrade that supports upgrading to ProcessWire 3 (or ProcessWire 2.8). We've used this for a few of our PW3 site upgrades, including the demo.processwire.com site, and it works quite well.

I'm a ASP.NET / SPA developer but processwire is so good that I chose to use it for my company's website and am considering to use it as as api for some internal web apps. I just added some blog capability using the blog module (which is based on the blog profile) as a reference and it was straightforward. I often say if I had to design a CMS/CMF it would look like processwire. Keep up the great work. My only complaint is that it's in PHP, and not C# :)

Hello team,These were all the very important and amazing updates. But one thing I was looking for a one to one chat integration/module. Currently I am building a CRM in which my client want me to integrate chat option,in team can send recive messages,files.I hope this module will come in exist very soon.By the way as always amazing work processwire.

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